By David Crossland, The (London) Times
Vladimir Putin’s private yacht has been spotted sailing towards Russia from a Hamburg shipyard, triggering speculation that it was trying to avoid being impounded by sanctions that would follow a potential invasion of Ukraine.
The Kieler Nachrichten newspaper on Sunday had published a photo of the 82-meter luxury yacht moored alongside the German navy corvette Emden. Since then the yacht has sailed into the Baltic.
Putin’s Graceful had been undergoing refurbishment at the Blohm+Voss shipyard since September where it had been fitted with two new large balconies and had its hull cleaned and its engines overhauled, the report said. Neither Blohm+Voss, which built the battleship Bismarck nor its parent company, Lürssen, could be reached for comment.
Putin on the deck of his yacht, which had been in Hamburg to be refurbishedALAMY
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